ChocolateHeaven

No More Learning Skills

I saw it coming a mile off. This might be why I’m not exactly frothing at the mouth. You likely know already, but they are removing learning skills. This isn’t a clearcut good or evil decision, much like anything in life.

From a marketing standpoint it makes perfect sense. It means new peeps don’t have to spend months plumbing away at those learning skills to just get into a position where they can train fun stuff at a reasonable speed, which should in turn mean a greater influx of said new peeps because that ‘first step’ isn’t quite as high as they have previously been led to believe.

Of course the other side to this is that those newbies no longer need to have even a fraction of the patience needed previously in order to get to the ‘fun stuff’. I think this is going to lower the quality of the community. Not that I’m ever one to advocate a class-based society (even though we do live in one), but quick-rewards have always been the domain of other, faster-paced MMOs. Which is not to say that model is wrong, it just doesn’t strike me as something in the spirit of our beloved Eve.

A Personal Spin

Historically, when I’ve taken noobs under my wing, I’ve been insistent that they train some fun stuff, and play the game how they want to play it. Ask questions and experience stuff. Try as much out as you possibly can in your trial and even your first paid-for month. This gives you the best overview of the game you can get, and you’ll get an idea of if you want to play properly or not. Then I tell them to train some learning skills.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not suggesting that patient people will no longer be joining up; they’ll just be buried under swathes of impatient people that have little or no concept of investing time for their rewards.

Concerning first contactI first found Eve in May 2003 in a preview article in a magazine, and started playing in early June of the same year. I’ve never regretted signing up, and its unlikely I’ll ever quit!

Comments for this Post

2 thoughts on “No More Learning Skills”

I’m not sure that I agree. It will still take patience to train skills to properly fit things. Even with maxxed learning skills training takes time. There are still choices to be made. The initial training will be quicker but that’s all. Will it help them know how to fit a ship? Probably not. Will it help them learn how to PvP? Definitely not. Will you be forced to accept these new players into your corporations? No.

I think time will tell. I see your point, and I hope it won’t adversely affect the community. Fingers crossed anyway. Apologies if I came across a little *too* much like the bitter veteran in this post. 🙂

The impact of the learning skills is such that if you are going to play for more than a trial the benefits of the learning skills make them all but mandatory. In effect a rite of suffering you have to endure, a money and time sink, just to bring you up to par. Pretty much any Eve character guide, or any chat channel in-game if asked “what should I train?” – the answer on most lips (excepting perhaps the choco-variety) is “learning skills first”. Dropping the learning branch is a simplification perhaps but seems to me more like rationalising, or removing a redundant feature.

From the perspective of a new player, you can run the tutorial missions and the Sisters Story Arc and make some decent cash. You finish up with a fairly decent, if basic understanding of the way the world works, a not insignificant pocket full of isk (relatively speaking), some presumably half decent skills, and a whole world/universe/thingy out there waiting for you.

II’d venture the impatient won’t be staying long in Eve, learning books or no.

Just my tuppence but I am firmly in the newb school in comparison so your mileage may vary.